School Wars. Melissa Benn

Edward Boyle, was torn limb from limb by Conservative voters infuriated at their children who had ‘failed’ the eleven-plus being sent to secondary moderns, along with 70–80 per cent of each age group. They had regarded the grammars as ‘their schools’. The eleven-plus, they said, lost them the 1964 election and would lose them every one until it was abolished. Margaret Thatcher recognised this as education secretary after 1970, as has the Tory party in practice ever since.²³

      The grammar/secondary modern divide may have defined the post-war education settlement, but there were signs of change from early on. Britain’s first purpose-built comprehensive, in Anglesey, opened in 1949 although it owed its existence to practicality rather than politics; it was simply impossible to sustain a two- or three-tier structure in an outlying rural area. While, according to Benn and Simon, the Tory government in power from 1951 to 1964 never said anything positive about comprehensives, it was prepared to sanction such schools in poor or outlying areas—but not in more affluent areas, where a comprehensive might detract from the status of a grammar school. Some local authorities, such as Coventry and London, pioneered the introduction of comprehensive schools, and, as popular disillusion with the selective system grew, evidence of their success was beginning to filter through.